I weigh Rammus once a week. I have only had him for a little over a month. I don't know what the average for weight fluctuation is but I would say as long as they aren't gaining or losing weight rapidly then it should be fine.

We weight Archimedes once a week, on Fridays because he was born on a friday. Makes it easy to track how much he's gaining by his age. I can't anything about fluctuation for adults from experience, since Ares is still growing, but I know that a little bit is normal, particularly if the time of day isn't always exactly the same. If you consider that a nickel weighs 5g, then several times that can really be the difference before/after a good-sized poop. XD It seems like a full-grown adult will probably have a range of as much as 10-20g or even a little more than that (going by weekly weigh-ins; daily would obviously be a lot less); that's just normal given variations in exactly how much is eaten, how much they run, and whatever else. I assume the range itself would depend on the size of a hedgehog; for a larger hedgehog, for instance, 20g is a much smaller percentage of the overall weight, whereas that would be more substantial for a smaller hedgehog - so that's also something to consider.

Going with Ares' current weight (278g) as an example, and let's pretend he's all grown up and not growing any more, hypothetically. Let's say, over 6 consecutive weeks, it would be pretty normal for his weight to be something like 277g, 271g, 280g, 274g, 281g, 278g. I would be more concerned if it was displaying any really dramatic changes, like a large drop, or slowly creeping either up or down. 277g, 283g, 289g, 292g, 301g, 308g - this steady increase, for example, would be worrisome with a hedgehog that's already full grown (though I know they occasionally can get extra little growth spurts later on, like around a year old sometimes), and a slow decrease wouldn't be good either. Also worrying would be something like: 277g, 274g, 278g, 280g, 276g, 250g.

Part of what's good about keeping a weight log is so you can get a sense for what the normal range is (which is going to differ depending on the hedgehog) and be able to notice right away if something changes that doesn't fit the normal pattern.

well i assume since quill is almost a year an a half(approx) shes full grown. just curious cause got a scale when she got an ear infection last week and want to make sure i wasnt freaking out if she lost some or gained some. she only wieghs about 295 so i dunno if thats big or small .

I weigh mine every morning. I have a scale sitting next to their cages, so that when I wake them up to do their morning health check (eyes, legs, etc all fine, no blood, swelling, etc), I plop them in the scale right quick and back in their cage they go.

I have 2 kitchen scales, both came with bowls, and measure down to 1 gram increments.

I weigh Norman, his food, and the treats I give him every evening when I take him out for snuggle time and record them in a spreadsheet. It gives me a nice picture of how his weight and how much he eats, and makes finding oddities like sudden weight gain, weight loss, and other quirks easier to identify. When his weight does change, it's usually by 5 +/- 1 gram, but he has been known to sudden gain or lose 10 in one night as well. "Normal" will vary from one hedgie to another.

__________________
This human slave proudly owned by: Spiny Norman
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are those of the human slave and do not necessarily represent those of Spiny Norman.
No human slaves were harmed in the making of this post.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Hedgehog Central – Hedgehog pet care & owner forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.